When Rempel was asked by Gene Muller, director of athletics and recreation at the University of Manitoba, for a prediction of how he envisioned the Bisons women’s hockey team would fare during the 2017-18 season, he jotted down a record and a how far he felt his squad would go.

“22-6 and a national championship win,” Rempel wrote.

That prediction was filed away and forgotten until this past week when Muller reminded Rempel of what he scribbled down all those months ago.

“It’s hysterically funny that it came up,” Rempel said. “I guess I should be looking at that stuff — I’m the one who did it.”

Rempel, a former pro player who spent time in the ECHL, and had a quick cup of coffee in the American Hockey League, doesn’t claim to be a psychic, he doesn’t go to regular tarot card readings or have his palms read.

But with the 2017-18 season now written in the record books, Rempel’s prediction was not just close: it was 100% bang on. The Bisons finished with a 19-5-3-1 record (19 regulation wins, five regulation losses, three overtime wins and one overtime loss — simplified, they went 22-6 during the regular season) and won the national title game 2-0 against the Western Mustangs on March 18 in London, Ont.

“The record was an educated guess, but I thought that all things being equal, if we played the way we were capable of playing, it’s something we that was achievable,” Rempel said, starting to smile. “It’s just so funny to me.”

* * *

The Bisons women’s team strolled into training camp having already put in the required work during the summer months, with many players going above and beyond the call of duty to prepare themselves for another push.

An old sport’s mantra suggests that to win, one must first learn to lose. The Bisons had become pupils well-versed in coming up short.

It’s not that they were bad. On the contrary. The Bisons lost in the Canada West semis the year before and the two years before that, they came up short in the Canada West Finals — the gateway to the U Sports national championship. They were always close, but getting over that hump was proving an impossible task.

“People were just spending more time working out, doing little things right,” said Venla Hovi, a three-time Olympian and two-time Olympic bronze medalist. “I kind of noticed that we didn’t deserve it the other years. We had the talent, but there are so many good teams out there. Everything has to be together to be able to win it.”

Losing forced the team to get better, to accept what they hadn’t achieved so they could look ahead to what was still attainable.

“This was the culmination of a sort of five-year plan,” Rempel said. “There was so much disappointment and heartache.”

From the get-go, the Bisons appeared to be on a mission of redemption. By the end of the regular season, the team had strung together nine-straight wins on two separate occasions and were 14-3 in one-goal games. After dropping the first game of the playoffs, the team rattled off a seven-game winning streak to book their trip to London.

“You look at the mental toughness it takes to do what we did — it just doesn’t happen in college sport because the season is so short,” Rempel said. “When I look back at it, it was the culmination of all those years where we went on some incredible playoff runs and not quite finishing it. And the leadership of this group. It was just incredible.”

* * *

To get his players where he wanted them to go, Rempel took a slightly different philosophy with his veteran contingent.

The Bisons women’s program had gone to the national championship on five occasions in its history and lost their first game in each of those appearances — effectively knocking them out contention for the national title.

Rempel hadn’t been soft in the past, but recognized he could likely extract more if he shifted his approach. Rempel hadn’t led a Bisons team to the national stage since 2011. He, himself, had learned what he could do better, and part of that came down to how he pushed his team.

“I pushed them very hard this year, especially my veteran players, I was extraordinarily hard on my veterans this year, mostly privately,” Rempel said of his team. “I knew they could take it. And I knew that if I didn’t do it, I didn’t know if we could push through that barrier.”

Perhaps they could handle it, but it didn’t make it any easier to hear at times.

“There was a couple moments throughout the season where maybe I wasn’t as happy as I had been in previous years,” said defenceman and team captain Caitlin Fyten. “I mean, I have so much respect for Jon as a coach, so looking at it afterward, he was doing it to just get the best out of me that he could. I think that was a great thing for him to do because it made me realize how much potential I had and how much I could step up.”

Their sixth trip to the national dance came with a win in their first game, and by now you know the rest. The Bisons surrendered just one goal in three games at nationals, blanking Queen’s 4-0, winning 2-1 in a shootout against Concordia and then their 2-0 defeat of Western for the crown.

* * *

Rempel’s next task is avoiding the proverbial championship hangover.

The likes of Hovi and Fyten are moving on from the program, but the U Sports coach of the year feels the absences of his team’s drivers this season will be filled by younger players hungry to replicate the same success.

“Those girls are going to be hungry,” Rempel said.

And experience, the thing that no coach can teach.

“Those who are returning now know what it takes to get there,” Rempel said. “When you know what it takes and how it feels, then you can replicate it.”

As for Rempel’s motivation heading into his 15th year as the Bisons’ bench boss, his coaching philosophies are continually being shaped.

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